Protective packaging for various articles of different sizes and shapes is commonly used in the packaging industry. Often, such protective packaging, or dunnage, is needed for cushioning in shipping containers or the like to protect articles.
In the past, various materials have been used as protective wrapping including dunnage made of embossed web material. Such embossed web material is often chosen due to its relative low cost and disposable nature. Embossed dunnage material has been made from multiple plies of web material such as paper or the like which has been embossed with a raised pattern under high heat and pressure. Typically the pressure used is about 1500 psi, using texturing rolls having mating male and female surfaces which force the paper to deform as it passes through the nip of the rolls. The embossing is often done while the webs are not fully dry so that the paper better retains the embossed pattern.
After embossing, several plies of the embossed material are combined such that the plies are in overlying relationship, but the plies are shifted slightly so that the patterns on the adjacent plies do not correspondingly overlie each other. Thus, the raised portions of the plies abut each other so that void areas are created between the plies. The presence of these void areas gives a cushioned effect to the material.
The embossed material is typically rolled up for bulk transport and storage at a site where the dunnage material is needed for use in packaging or the like. When the dunnage material is to be used, the roll of embossed material is moved to a desired site, and the roll is unwound so that desired lengths of the material may be cut off and used as cushioning material.
Several drawbacks accompany the practices described above. The void areas between the plies of embossed material cause the embossed web material to be substantially bulkier than unembossed plies. Thus, a significantly smaller amount of the embossed material may be stored on a single roll than could be stored on a roll if the paper were not embossed. As a result, more space is required to store and transport a desired quantity of the dunnage material. For example, a single roll of unembossed web material may contain ten times the amount of paper as is contained on a roll of equivalent size having cushioned embossed material with void spaces. Additionally, because less material is retained on the rolls, the embossed dunnage material is depleted relatively quickly when the material is unwound from the rolls and used, thereby requiring frequent resupply of fresh rolls of dunnage material. Of course, the expense to purchase the embossed material is generally greater than the cost of unembossed paper, and the added bulk of the embossed paper increases the cost to transport, store and use the material. It is therefore apparent that the need exists for an improved means for providing cushioned dunnage material to a site for use in packaging operations.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for fabricating cushioned dunnage material from multiple plies of continuous web material which avoids the heretofore necessary step of transporting and storing the bulky embossed material prior to use.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for embossing web materials without the application of heat or pressure.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for providing the cushioned web material in discrete segments having a desired length.
A still further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for providing cushioned dunnage material to a site for use in packaging operations.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a compact dunnage dispensing apparatus which may be conveniently used at a packaging site.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus which uses identical rolls to emboss a raised pattern on the web material, thus minimizing the expense associated with the rolls.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a new apparatus for transporting and storing web material on rolls.
A further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for precisely severing the web material into discrete segments having desired lengths.
Another object of this invention is to provide a dunnage fabricating and dispensing apparatus which is less expensive to use than other known devices.